Fireworks injury, Tahoe beaches, Arden standoff; KCRA Today, July … – KCRA Sacramento

(KCRA)

Good morning, Sacramento. Here's what you need to know for Wednesday, July 5, 2017:

A man suffered severe hand injuries Tuesday afternoon when fireworks exploded in his hands, the Lodi Police Department said.

The 55-year-old was taken to the hospital for treatment.

The black sedan the man was sitting in also sustained extensive damage, police said. CLICK HERE for the full story.

++ California water officials will provide an update on the construction at the Lake Oroville spillways. A conference call is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.

++ T. The annual event is held after the 4th of July by the Save Lake Tahoe organization.

++ Tens of thousands of people squeezed on to Lake Tahoe's shrinking beach areas this 4th of July to picnic and watch fireworks. The extra 5 feet of vertical water within a year has covered acres of sandy beaches around the lake. Kevin Oliver has the story.

++ Within three hours Tuesday, Sacramento firefighters responded to more than 20 grass and structure fires. Get the full story here.

++ People living in San Joaquin County have been sounding off about illegal fireworks being set off in their neighborhoods. In response, the county cracked down hard. Dana Griffin has the story.

++ A 5-hour standoff outside an Arden-Arcade apartment ended Tuesday night after the man deputies were looking for was not found inside, the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department said. Read the full story here.

++ A graffiti artist is tagging multiple areas around Midtown Sacramento with what appears to be poorly executed flowers. The flowers are not particularly beautiful, nor are they very ugly -- but they are illegal. Tom Miller has the full story.

Wednesday is expected to be clear and sunny with highs in the mid- to low-90s. Temperatures are expected to warm up by the weekend.

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Fireworks injury, Tahoe beaches, Arden standoff; KCRA Today, July ... - KCRA Sacramento

Volunteers clean up holiday litter, trash on Grand Haven beaches – WZZM

Grand Haven fireworks beach clean-up

Staff , WZZM 3:12 PM. EDT July 05, 2017

Grand Haven State Park gets cleaned up after Fourth of July festivities. (Photo: John Linsley, WZZM 13)

GRAND HAVEN, MICH. - Now that the holiday is over, volunteers have combed the Grand Have State Park to remove trash and litter left by visitors.

On Wednesday morning, citizens volunteers for the "Adopt-a-Beach" Clean Up hosted by the Alliance for the Great Lakes, which says that litter left behind on beaches and shorelines is a growing issues. As you can imagine, there was quite the mess left behind after last night's fireworks show in Grand Haven.

"It's really about balancing our natural resources with our economy and our tourism," said Adopt-a-Beach manager, Jamie Cross. "We want people to come out and we want people to enjoy the beaches and the shorelines, but we want to make sure that they understand the beauty and how important it is of a resource -- so, we're trying to figure out how to make that balance."

Related: Large fight closes Grand Haven State Park Related: Conversation Officers work to keep booze off Grand Haven State Park Beach

Volunteers spent the morning picking up trash, blankets and among other things. Organizers say among the cans and bottles picked up, only 26 were recyclable and more than 250 items were not.

Wednesday's clean-up is one of two held at Grand Haven State Park this summer.

More information can be found on the Adopt-a-Beach website.

Makeit easy to keep up to date with more stories like this.Download theWZZM13 app now.

Have a news tip? Emailnews@wzzm13.com, visit ourFacebook pageorTwitter.

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Volunteers clean up holiday litter, trash on Grand Haven beaches - WZZM

Astronomy theme park to offer first-of-its-kind entertainment for science buffs in Vietnam – Inside the Magic


Blooloop
Astronomy theme park to offer first-of-its-kind entertainment for science buffs in Vietnam
Inside the Magic
This new astronomy park joins the Kim Quy Amusement Park in Hanoi, which was inspired by Disneyland. Other tourist attractions are expected for Vietnam in the coming years as the government makes a push to attract more visitors to the area, giving a ...
An astronomy theme park for HanoiBlooloop
First outdoor astronomy park in Southeast Asia to be built in HanoiNhan Dan Online
Nam Cuong group to build first astronomy park in Southeast Asiahttp://en.vietnamplus.vn/ (press release)

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Astronomy theme park to offer first-of-its-kind entertainment for science buffs in Vietnam - Inside the Magic

Hypervelocity Stars are ‘Runaways’ from Large Magellanic Cloud, Astronomers Say – Sci-News.com

Hypervelocity stars ultrafast stars with speeds up to a few hundred miles per second above the average were likely ejected from the Large Magellanic Cloud, a neighboring dwarf galaxy some 160,000 light-years away, say astronomers at the University of Cambridge, UK.

A hypervelocity star leaving the Large Magellanic Cloud. Image credit: NASA / CXC / M.Weiss / Ruth Bazinet, CfA / Sci.News.

Astronomers first thought that the hypervelocity stars, which are large blue stars, may have been ejected from the giant black hole at the Milky Ways heart.

Other scenarios involving disintegrating dwarf galaxies or chaotic star clusters can also account for the speeds of these stars but all three mechanisms fail to explain why they are only found in a certain part of the sky.

To date, over 20 hypervelocity stars have been spotted, mostly in the northern hemisphere, although its possible that there are many more that can only be observed in the southern hemisphere.

The hypervelocity stars are mostly found in the Leo and Sextans constellations we wondered why that is the case, said team member Douglas Boubert, a PhD student at the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge.

An alternative explanation to the origin of hypervelocity stars is that they are runaways from a binary system.

In binary star systems, the closer the two stars are, the faster they orbit one another. If one star explodes as a supernova, it can break up the binary and the remaining star flies off at the speed it was orbiting. The escaping star is known as a runaway.

Runaway stars originating in the Milky Way are not fast enough to be hypervelocity because blue stars cant orbit close enough without the two stars merging. But a fast-moving galaxy could give rise to these speedy stars.

The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is the largest and fastest of the dozens of dwarf galaxies in orbit around the Milky Way. It only has 10% of the mass of the Milky Way, and so the fastest runaways born in this dwarf galaxy can easily escape its gravity.

The LMC flies around our Galaxy at 250 miles per second and the speed of runaway stars is the velocity they were ejected at plus the velocity of their host galaxy. This is fast enough for them to be the hypervelocity stars.

This also explains their position in the sky, because the fastest runaways are ejected along the orbit of the LMC towards the constellations of Leo and Sextans, said team member Dr. Rob Izzard, also from the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge.

The researchers used a combination of data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and computer simulations to model how hypervelocity stars might escape the LMC and end up in the Milky Way.

They simulated the birth and death of stars in the LMC over the past two billion years, and noted down every runaway star.

The orbit of the runaway stars after they were kicked out of the LMC was then followed in a second simulation that included the gravity of the LMC and the Milky Way.

These simulations allow the authors to predict where on the sky we would expect to find runaway stars from the LMC.

We are the first to simulate the ejection of runaway stars from the LMC we predict that there are 10,000 runaways spread across the sky, Boubert said.

Half of the simulated stars which escape the LMC are fast enough to escape the gravity of the Milky Way, making them hypervelocity stars.

If the previously known hypervelocity stars are runaway stars it would also explain their position in the sky.

The results are published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (arXiv.org preprint).

_____

D. Boubert et al. 2017. Hypervelocity runaways from the Large Magellanic Cloud. Mon Not R Astron Soc 469 (2): 2151-2162; doi: 10.1093/mnras/stx848

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Hypervelocity Stars are 'Runaways' from Large Magellanic Cloud, Astronomers Say - Sci-News.com

Surprise methanol detection points to evolving story of Enceladus’s … – Astronomy Now Online

NASA image of Enceladus within the E-ring in orbit around Saturn, where it is possible that the methanol detection could originate further out in the E-ring. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

A serendipitous detection of the organic molecule methanol around an intriguing moon of Saturn suggests that material spewed from Enceladus undertakes a complex chemical journey once vented into space. This is the first time that a molecule from Enceladus has been detected with a ground-based telescope.

Dr Emily Drabek-Maunder, of Cardiff University, presented the results on Tuesday 4July at the National Astronomy Meeting at the University of Hull.

Enceladuss plumes are thought to originate in water escaping from a subsurface ocean through cracks in the moons icy surface. Eventually these plumes feed into Saturns second-outermost ring, the E-ring.

Drabek-Maunder says: Recent discoveries that icy moons in our outer Solar System could host oceans of liquid waterand ingredients for life have sparked exciting possibilities for their habitability. But in this case, our findings suggest that that methanol is being created by further chemical reactions once the plume is ejected into space, making it unlikely it is an indication for life on Enceladus.

Past studies of Enceladus have involved the NASA/ESA Cassini spacecraft, which has detected molecules like methanol by directly flying into the plumes. Recent work has found similar amounts of methanol in Earths oceans and Enceladuss plumes.

In this study, Dr Jane Greaves of Cardiff University and Dr Helen Fraser of the Open University detected the bright methanol signature using the IRAM 30-metre radio telescope in the Spanish Sierra Nevada.

This observation was very surprising since it was not the main molecule we were originally looking for in Enceladuss plumes, says Greaves.

The team suggests the unexpectedly large quantity of methanol may have two possible origins: either a cloud of gas expelled from Enceladus has been trapped by Saturns magnetic field, or gas has spread further out into Saturns E-ring. In either case, the methanol has been greatly enhanced compared to detections in the plumes.

Team member Dr Dave Clements of Imperial College, points out: Observations arent always straightforward. To interpret our results, we needed the wealth of information Cassini gave us about Enceladuss environment. This study suggests a degree of caution needs to be taken when reporting on the presence of molecules that could be interpreted as evidence for life.

Cassini will end its journey later this year, leaving remote observations through ground- and space-based telescopes as the only possibility for exploring Saturn and its moons at least for now.

Drabek-Maunder adds:This finding shows that detections of molecules at Enceladus are possible using ground-based facilities. However, to understand the complex chemistry in these subsurface oceans, we will need further direct observations by future spacecraft flying through Enceladuss plumes.

Read more from the original source:

Surprise methanol detection points to evolving story of Enceladus's ... - Astronomy Now Online

Celestial fireworks pop off in a cosmic train wreck – SYFY WIRE (blog)

140 million light-years from Earth lies a very strange object.

Called Arp 299, its a twisted, distorted mess. Arp 299 is actually two objects: a pair of galaxies that are colliding, physically slamming into each other, a cosmic train wreck played out over a hundred million years.

When two galaxies collide, the gravity of each distorts the other, stretching them out and warping their shapes. Weirdly, stars almost never actually impact each other during the collision; stars are very, very small compared to the distances between them. It would be similar to a couple of gnats accidentally hitting each other when flying around inside a football stadium.

But gas clouds are big, light-years across, and they do hit each other. This causes them to collapse, and collapsing clouds form stars. Arp 299 is seen to be forming stars at an accelerated rate, too, and has been for about 15 million years giving a timescale for when this collision began in earnest.

[Hubble's view of the two galaxies colliding to form Arp 299. Credit:NASA/JPL-Caltech/GSFC]

Most of those newborn stars are red dwarfs, smaller and cooler and fainter than the Sun. But some are much more massive, hot and fiercely luminous. These live short lives, then explode as supernovae, leaving behind dense objects like neutron stars or black holes. If one of those massive stars had a companion star, another star orbiting it in a binary system, then the neutron star or black hole could siphon material off the companion. In the case of a black hole, it forms a super hot disk, which can be very luminous. A neutron star is no slouch either: The gravity is so fierce that a marshmallow impacting the surface would explode like a nuclear bomb! It would slam into the surface at a speed of half or more the speed of light, and thats fast.

In either case, so much energy is generated that the system blasts out X-rays, and we call those high-mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs). If they are very luminous, theyre also called ultra-luminous X-ray sources (ULXs). A typical galaxy might have one, maybe two of these things.

New observations using the Chandra X-ray Observatory show that Arp 299 has 14 of them that are consistent with being HMXBs.

Whoa. Thats a lot.

[X-rays from Arp 299 reveal quite a few very luminous sources, including black holes slowly eating their companions.Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ of Crete/K. Anastasopoulou et al, NASA/NuSTAR/GSFC/A. Ptak et al; Optical: NASA/STScI]

Theres a bit of a mystery here, though. The more stars a galaxy makes, the more of these systems you expect to see. For a given amount of gas forming stars, you expect lots of little stars and only a handful of massive ones. This relationship can be quantified, and used to predict how many of each kind of star youd expect. We also can get a decent hold on how many of those stars are in binaries, and how many will form HMXBs.

When you do all those calculations for Arp 299, given how many stars it forms, the number of HMXBs you get is too low. It should have a lot more! Where are they?

The authors go through a few scenarios to explain the deficit, but most come up short. For example, the colliding galaxies are choked with dust (silicate [rocky] grains and long-chain carbon molecules), which can block light. Could that be causing the observations to miss lots of these X-ray binaries? Nope. Theres not enough dust to do it.

Other explanations fare no better. But there may be a way out: The total energy emitted by these sources in Arp 299 is about what youd expect if the number of HMXBs were a lot higher. The authors postulate that there actually is no deficit, and Arp 299 has the number of these systems you expect, its just that a lot of them are forming in gas clouds that are too small to be resolved in the Chandra observations. In other words, a small region of space might have several HMXBs, but theyre so closely packed together that from our vast distance we see them as one source.

It would be like sitting down in the back of a concert hall and seeing only 10 musicians on stage. The concert starts, and to your surprise the noise level is equal to a full orchestra! If you get up and move to a closer seat, youll see that what you thought was 10 musicians is actually 60, but they were sitting in clumps so close together you couldnt see all the individual players.

Arp 299 actually has quite a few other sources of X-rays. As I wrote in an article last year, one of the two galaxies in the collision has a supermassive black hole in its core thats actively eating material, and its emitting a decent amount of X-rays (the other galaxy may have such an active nucleus as well, but its not certain). Theres also a huge halo of hot gas surrounding the pair, heated by the winds from massive stars being born there, and possibly too from stars that have exploded in the past few million years.

As I said, colliding galaxies are a mess. But then, when you take a couple of ridiculously huge galaxies packed with billions of stars and gas clouds and whack them into each other at a couple of hundred kilometers per second, you expect to see fireworks.

Read the rest here:

Celestial fireworks pop off in a cosmic train wreck - SYFY WIRE (blog)

Western Pennsylvania astronomers prepare for solar eclipse – Tribune-Review

Safety first

John J. Smetanka, vice president for academic affairs, academic dean and assistant professor of astronomy at St. Vincent College, will visit 13 Westmoreland County libraries in the weeks leading up to the eclipse to educate residents on why it occurs and how to view it safely.

Delmont Public Library, 6 p.m. Tuesday

Murrysville Community Library, 6 p.m. July 12

Sewickley Township Library, 6:30 p.m. July 13

Greensburg Hempfield Area Library, 6:30 p.m. July 18

Norwin Public Library, 6:30 p.m. July 19

Adams Memorial Library, 6 p.m. July 20

Manor Public Library, 7 p.m. July 24

Mt. Pleasant Library, 6 p.m. July 27

Updated 8 hours ago

Western Pennsylvania will get its first good look at a solar eclipse in more than two decades on Aug. 21, and astronomers throughout the region want to make sure people are prepared.

A solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the earth and the sun. The path of the eclipse is determined by the Earth's position relative to both celestial bodies.

The last time an eclipse was visible in this area was May 1994. The last total eclipse visible in the United States was in 1972.

Pittsburgh's only going to have about 80 percent coverage, said Amateur Astronomers Association of Pittsburgh President Ed Moss. So we won't be able to see to total eclipse, but it will be close.

The eclipse will begin at roughly 1:10 p.m. in the Pittsburgh region and will be visible for 2 hours and 44 minutes.

But people should be wary of how they view it, Moss said.

There are special glasses you can buy, and there are also solar filters that you can put on a telescope, he said.

John J. Smetanka, vice president for academic affairs, academic dean and assistant professor of astronomy at St. Vincent College, will visit 13 Westmoreland County libraries in the weeks leading up to the eclipse to educate residents on why it occurs and how to view it safely.

It's not that it's more dangerous to look at the sun during an eclipse, but you're tempted more to look, Smetanka said. You want to see that crescent, but even with 85 percent of the sun obscured, it's still way too bright to not damage your eyes.

One interesting way to observe the eclipse's effect is to look at the shadow of a tree, which functions in a similar way to the pinhole viewer that can be created using a shoebox.

The sun is round, and so typically you don't notice that large, round blobs of light are passing through the leaves of the tree, Smetanka said. During the eclipse, instead of round blobs of light, the tree almost functions as a multiple-pinhole projector, and you end up seeing crescent-shaped blobs of light.

Both of the Pittsburgh astronomy group's observatories, Wagman Observatory in Deer Lakes Park and Mingo Creek Park Observatory in Finleyville, will be open during the eclipse, and each has telescopes outfitted with solar filters.

St. Vincent College will let visitors view the eclipse from 1 to 4 p.m. in the Sis and Herman Dupre Science Pavilion on the Unity campus. In case of inclement weather, viewing will be moved to the college's observatory and Angelo J. Taiani Planetarium.

Smetanka said he is enjoying the enthusiasm people have shown at libraries he has already visited.

To have 20 or 30 people turn out in Scottdale or Vandergrift to learn about an astronomical event is great to see, he said.

Patrick Varine is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724-850-2862, pvarine@tribweb.com or via Twitter @MurrysvilleStar.

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Pittsburgh puts database of 3,000 city-owned properties for sale online

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Western Pennsylvania astronomers prepare for solar eclipse - Tribune-Review

NASA marks 20 years of continuous Mars exploration – Astronomy Now Online

This portion of a classic 1997 panorama from the IMP camera on the mast of NASAs Mars Pathfinder lander includes Twin Peaks on the horizon, and the Sojourner rover next to a rock called Yogi. Credit: NASA/JPL

NASAs Mars Pathfinder probe dropped to the surface of Mars for an airbag-cushioned landing 20 years ago Tuesday, bouncing 15 times across an ancient flood plain before deploying a mobile robot to usher in two decades of uninterrupted Martian exploration.

The landing on July 4, 1997, was the first touchdown of a robot on Mars since NASAs Viking landers arrived in 1976, and the U.S. space agency has since maintained a continuous robotic presence at the red planet, dispatching additional landers, rovers and orbiters to sample rocks, monitor Martian weather, and glimpse into the worlds warmer, wetter past.

Ithink Mars holds a special place in everyones hearts because it looks a lot like the Earth it looks like a place we could live, said Mike Watkins, director of NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where engineers developed, built and operated Mars Pathfinder.

Watkins said Pathfinders landing on Mars helped lead NASA to answer fundamental questions about Earths neighbor: What was its history? How did Mars get the way it is? Was it once habitable?

Follow-on missions have sent rovers driving across dried-up lake and river beds, to deposits left by ancient hot springs, and orbiters that found signs of intermittent water still present on the desert planet and helped unravel how Mars became so cold and inhospitable.

I believe that Pathfinder, in particular, helped us understand a new way of exploring planets, Watkins said in a panel discussion televised on NASA TV. You could argue that Viking, as the first planetary lander, sort of pioneered in situ science, but that was kind of a one-off mission. I think Pathfinder showed us not only that mobility can be useful, but the notion of an ongoing interactive exploration of a planet, a voyage of continuous discovery.

Conceived in late 1993 as NASA faced a severe budget crunch in the wake of several high-profile robotic mission mishaps, Mars Pathfinder had to fit within stringent cost and schedule limits.

NASA Headquarters in Washington, at the behest of then-administrator Dan Goldin, gave engineers at JPL three years and $150 million to ready the lander for launch in December 1996. Goldin said NASA could no longer afford multibillion-dollar missions to explore the solar system in an era of nearly-flat budgets.

The agency had to revamp how it conducted interplanetary missions after the Viking Mars landings and the Voyager probes first forays into the outer solar system, Goldin said recently, because money is not the magic ingredient.

Goldin infused his mantra of faster, better, cheaper across NASAs programs, leading to the launch of fleets of smaller, less costly spacecraft to study the cosmos and visit unexplored destinations, from new regions on the Martian surface, to Mercury, Pluto, asteroids and comets.

Mars Pathfinder got its start months after controllers lost contact with NASAs $813 million Mars Observer orbiter days before it was to arrive at the red planet. But NASAs next Mars mission, despite vastly more ambitious objectives, ended up costing about one-third the expenditure that went into Mars Observer.

We had to do something bold, Goldin said during a celebration of Pathfinders 20th anniversary. It just couldnt be another orbiter It had to be really hard. When you compare what it cost for Viking, that was billions, and now were a factor of 20 (less) on cost and a factor of three (less) on schedule, with technology that they didnt have time to develop in advance.

While Pathfinders team had to work within tight financial and time boxes, managers said they had freedom to innovate. In real terms, that usually meant building, breaking, then fixing a part that needed to fly on the mission.

When something went wrong and there was a problem, I could being together a handful of people, and in a matter of minutes, to hours or maybe a few days, we could undertsand the problem and we could put a solution in place and wed go execute it, said Brian Muirhead, Mars Pathfinders flight system manager at JPL. Sometimes, in our big projects today, it could take weeks to months to make those kinds of changes.

One example was a cable that engineers designed to extend below the lander during final descent to measure its altitude. That didnt work, so designers opted for a radar to bounce signals off the Martian surface for altitude data, but that solution also proved complicated as a prototype lander swung beneath a parachute during drop testing in Earths atmosphere.

The landers inflatable cushion was also tricky, but engineers needed the airbags to keep the spacecrafts mass down, exchanging air for heavier rocket fuel to bring the robot to a rest on Mars. The Viking landers relied on retrorockets to brake for touchdown, but the airbags, in principle, were more resilient.

Mission engineers procured time on a supercomputer at Sandia National Laboratories to model how the airbags would respond to different terrains and conditions on Mars. Muirhead said the airbag tests brought the computer, one of the most powerful in existence at the time, to its knees.

There were certain parts of it we came to realize you really couldnt treat very well with a computer simulation, airbags being, by far and away, the foremost example, said Sam Thurman, Mars Pathfinders entry, descent and landing system engineer at JPL.

NASA sent a full-scale model of the airbags, made of a high-strength fiber called Vectran, to the Plum Brook Station in Ohio for drop tests against an inclined, rocky floor meant to mimic the Martian surface.

Mission managers were finally comfortable with the airbag design in early 1996, deeming the system qualified for the trip to Mars eight months before blastoff.

Mars Pathfinder departed Earth on Dec. 4, 1996, riding a Boeing Delta 2 rocket from Cape Canaveral on the first leg of its seven-month voyage.

Unlike the Viking landers, which dropped to Mars from orbiting motherships, Pathfinder made a direct descent, slicing through the atmosphere at higher speeds than the Vikings experienced.

A heat-resistant shield protected the lander during the first part of entry, then a supersonic parachute deployed, braking rockets fired and the airbags inflated before the shepherding craft cut the landers Kevlar bridle.

Shortly before 10 a.m. PDT (1 p.m. EDT; 1700 GMT) on July 4, 1997, the lander hit the ground at about 31 mph (14 meters per second), and rebounded several stories high, bouncing at least 15 times before coming to a stop more than a half-mile (1 kilometre) from its original landing point in Ares Vallis, a rocky plain in Marss northern hemisphere.

The airbags deflated automatically, opening Pathfinders flower-like petals to make way for the exit of the Sojourner rover, a six-wheeled vehicle that was not originally part of the Pathfinder mission.

NASA added Sojourner after scouring the agency for money to fund it, and its cost, along with the price of the Delta 2 booster and a three-month operations budget, pushed Pathfinders final cost to $264 million.

The Pathfinder lander soon transmitted its first signals to anxious engineers on Earth, and the first images were beamed back to the ground a few hours later.

The very first thing we wanted to do is to get those images down to see what the landing site looked like, and the rover on the petal, said Jennifer Trosper, Pathfinders flight director.

I remember getting those images down, and we were printing them out on printers, she said, in contrast to todays smartphone and social media age.

The Sojourner rover, named for American civil rights pioneer Sojourner Truth, drove down a ramp to start traversing the landing zone the day after arriving on Mars. Staying in touch with mission control via a wireless modem link with the stationary landing platform, the solar-powered rover about the size of a microwave oven inspected the rock-strewn region nearby, logging more than 300 feet (100 metres) on its odometer.

Designed to last between one week and one month, Sojourner relayed data for nearly three months until the Pathfinder landing station stopped communicating with Earth on Sept. 27. The ground team suspected the spacecrafts battery was depleted and its internal temperature dropped below a safe level, according to a mission fact sheet posted on a NASA website.

The end of Pathfinders mission came about two weeks after NASAs Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft slid into orbit at the planet.

The Sojourner rovers chassis was a forerunner to bigger vehicles, first the identical Spirit and Opportunity rovers that landed in 2004, and then the Curiosity mission that arrived in 2012.

The Opportunity and Curiosity rovers are still moving across the red planet today, and another rover based on Curiositys frame will launch to Mars in July 2020.

Look at the legacies that that little rover have led to, to Spirit, Opportunity, Curiosity, and then Mars 2020, said Charles Elachi, JPLs director from 2001 through 2016. Thats a kind of small but visionary technology investment that NASA and Dan (Goldin) were very well known for, which led us to do the great things that we do now.

But the last 20 years of NASA Mars missions have not been without blemishes.

NASA lost two spacecraft as they arrived at Mars in late 1999, both of which followed in the footsteps of Pathfinder, incorporating Goldins faster, better, cheaper philosophy.

The Mars Climate Orbiter burned up in the Martian atmosphere as it tried to enter orbit in September 1999, an error caused by the mismatch of English units and metric units used by the crafts navigation and operations teams. Less than three months later, the Mars Polar Lander crashed on the red planet, likely due to a premature engine shutdown.

Investigators said a contributing cause of the mishaps was their tight budgets, concluding the projects were under-funded by at least 30 percent.

NASA gave more money to subsequent Mars missions and added additional engineering reviews to ensure their readiness for launch.

Mars scientists have had at least one operating mission at Mars every day since Pathfinders Independence Day descent 20 years ago. NASAs Mars Odyssey joined Mars Global Surveyor in 2001, and the Spirit and Opportunity rovers blasted off in mid-2003, along with the European Space Agencys first interplanetary mission, Mars Express.

Odyssey, Opportunity and Mars Express are still returning scientific data all years beyond their intended lifetimes while Mars Global Surveyor stopped transmitting in 2006 and engineers last heard from the Spirit rover in 2010.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, carrying a high-resolution mapping camera, launched in August 2005 and arrived at Mars in March 2006. NASA is still getting data from MRO, which returns dazzling sharp-eyed views of Martian terrain.

NASAs Phoenix lander touched down on the northern polar plains of Mars in May 2008, succumbing to the extreme Martian winter in November 2008 as expected.

The Curiosity rover has explored Gale Crater, an impact basin rife with geologic features like dunes, buttes and a three-mile-tall mountain, since August 2012. NASAs MAVEN orbiter has been sampling the upper atmosphere of Mars since 2014, and India flew its first planetary mission into Martian orbit the same year.

The newest arrival is ESAs ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, which aims to seek the source of methane in the Martian atmosphere, a potential indicator of ongoing biological or geological activity.

Many of Pathfinders engineers have worked on all of JPLs Mars rovers.

One of the great legacies of Pathfinder and the Mars program is it allowed us to do engineering the way engineering is done, which is to have the same people do a mission, learn what they did right or wrong, and then do another one, and then do another one, Watkins said.

The series of missions, launching at cadences as short as every two years when the planets are properly aligned, have helped NASA build up a knowledge base they we really havent had for any other planet, Watkins said.

Email the author.

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.

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NASA marks 20 years of continuous Mars exploration - Astronomy Now Online

Telescope for detecting optical signals from gravitational waves launched – University of Sheffield News

5 July 2017

Scientists at the University of Sheffield are part of an international research team which has built a state-of-the-art telescope for detecting optical signatures of gravitational waves.

The Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO) was inaugurated at the astronomical observing facility in La Palma, Canary Islands, this week (3 July 2017). The event was attended by the University of Sheffields Professor Dave Petley, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Innovation and Professor Vik Dhillon, from the Department of Physics and Astronomy.

GOTO is an autonomous, intelligent telescope, which will search for unusual activity in the sky, following alerts from gravitational wave detectors - such as the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (Adv-LIGO), which recently secured the first direct detections of gravitational waves.

Gravitational waves are ripples in the fabric of space-time, created when massive bodies particularly black holes and neutron stars orbit each other and merge at very high speeds.

These waves radiate through the Universe at the speed of light, and analysing them heralds a new era in astrophysics, giving astronomers vital clues about the bodies from which they originated as well as long-awaited insight into the nature of gravity itself.

First predicted over a century ago by Albert Einstein, they have only been directly detected in the last two years, and astronomers next challenge is to associate the signals from these waves with signatures in the electromagnetic spectrum, such as optical light.

GOTOs precise aim is to locate optical signatures associated with the gravitational waves as quickly as possible, so that astronomers can study these sources with a variety of telescopes and satellites before they fade away. Professor Vik Dhillon, said: This new telescope is a major breakthrough in helping us to continue our important research into detecting optical signatures of gravitational waves.

Dr Danny Steeghs, from Warwicks Astronomy and Astrophysics Group, is leading the project. He said: After all the hard work put in by everyone, I am delighted to see the GOTO telescopes in operational mode at the Roque de los Muchachos observatory. We are all excited about the scientific opportunities it will provide.

GOTO is operated on behalf of a consortium of institutions including the University of Warwick, Monash University, the Armagh Observatory, Leicester and Sheffield Universities, and the National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand (NARIT).

La Palma is one of the worlds premier astronomical observing sites, owing to the fact that it has an altitude of approximately 2400m and has very little pollution giving researchers clear views of the sky.

The University of Sheffield With almost 27,000 of the brightest students from over 140 countries, learning alongside over 1,200 of the best academics from across the globe, the University of Sheffield is one of the worlds leading universities.

A member of the UKs prestigious Russell Group of leading research-led institutions, Sheffield offers world-class teaching and research excellence across a wide range of disciplines.

Unified by the power of discovery and understanding, staff and students at the university are committed to finding new ways to transform the world we live in.

Sheffield is the only university to feature in The Sunday Times 100 Best Not-For-Profit Organisations to Work For 2016 and was voted number one university in the UK for Student Satisfaction by Times Higher Education in 2014. In the last decade it has won four Queens Anniversary Prizes in recognition of the outstanding contribution to the United Kingdoms intellectual, economic, cultural and social life.

Sheffield has six Nobel Prize winners among former staff and students and its alumni go on to hold positions of great responsibility and influence all over the world, making significant contributions in their chosen fields.

Global research partners and clients include Boeing, Rolls-Royce, Unilever, AstraZeneca, Glaxo SmithKline, Siemens and Airbus, as well as many UK and overseas government agencies and charitable foundations.

For further information, please visit http://www.sheffield.ac.uk

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Telescope for detecting optical signals from gravitational waves launched - University of Sheffield News

Google’s DeepMind Turns to Canada for Artificial Intelligence Boost – Fortune

Googles high-profile artificial intelligence unit has a new Canadian outpost.

DeepMind, which Google bought in 2014 for roughly $650 million, said Wednesday that it would open a research center in Edmonton, Canada. The new research center, which will work closely with the University of Alberta, is the United Kingdom-based DeepMinds first international AI research lab.

DeepMind, now a subsidiary of Google parent company Alphabet ( goog ) , recruited three University of Alberta professors from to lead the new research lab. The professorsRich Sutton, Michael Bowling, and Patrick Pilarskiwill maintain their positions at the university while working at the new research office.

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Sutton, in particular, is a noted expert in a subset of AI technologies called reinforcement learning and was an advisor to DeepMind in 2010. With reinforcement learning, computers look for the best possible way to achieve a particular goal, and learn from each time they fail.

DeepMind has popularized reinforcement learning in recent years through its AlphaGo program that has beat the worlds top players in the ancient Chinese board game, Go. Google has also incorporated some of the reinforcement learning techniques used by DeepMind in its data centers to discover the best calibrations that result in lower power consumption.

DeepMind has taken this reinforcement learning approach right from the very beginning, and the University of Alberta is the worlds academic leader in reinforcement learning, so its very natural that we should work together, Sutton said in a statement. And as a bonus, we get to do it without moving.

DeepMind has also been investigated by the United Kingdom's Information Commissioner's Office for failing to comply with the United Kingdom's Data Protection Act as it expands to using its technology in the healthcare space.

ICO information commissioner Elizabeth Denham said in a statement on Monday that the office discovered a "number of shortcomings" in the way DeepMind handled patient data as part of a clinical trial to use its technology to alert, detect, and diagnosis kidney injuries. The ICO claims that DeepMind failed to explain to participants how it was using their medical data for the project.

DeepMind said Monday that it "underestimated the complexity" of the United Kingdom's National Health Service "and of the rules around patient data, as well as the potential fears about a well-known tech company working in health." DeepMind said it would be now be more open to the public, patients, and regulators with how it uses patient data.

"We were almost exclusively focused on building tools that nurses and doctors wanted, and thought of our work as technology for clinicians rather than something that needed to be accountable to and shaped by patients, the public and the NHS as a whole," DeepMind said in a statement. "We got that wrong, and we need to do better."

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Google's DeepMind Turns to Canada for Artificial Intelligence Boost - Fortune

Artificial Stupidity: Learning To Trust Artificial Intelligence (Sometimes) – Breaking Defense

A young Marine reaches out for a hand-launched drone.

In science fiction and real life alike, there are plenty of horror stories where humans trust artificial intelligence too much. They range from letting the fictional SkyNet control our nuclear weapons to letting Patriots shoot down friendly planes or letting Tesla Autopilot crash into a truck. At the same time, though, theres also a danger of not trusting AI enough.

As conflict on earth, in space, and in cyberspace becomes increasingly fast-paced and complex, the Pentagons Third Offset initiative is counting on artificial intelligence to help commanders, combatants, and analysts chart a course through chaos what weve dubbed the War Algorithm (click here for the full series). But if the software itself is too complex, too opaque, or too unpredictable for its users to understand, theyll just turn it off and do things manually. At least, theyll try: What worked for Luke Skywalker against the first Death Star probably wont work in real life. Humans cant respond to cyberattacks in microseconds or coordinate defense against a massive missile strike in real time. With Russia and China both investing in AI systems, deactivating our own AI may amount to unilateral disarmament.

Abandoning AI is not an option. Never is abandoning human input. The challenge is to create an artificial intelligence that can earn the humans trust, a AI that seems transparent or even human.

Robert Work

Tradeoffs for Trust

Clausewitz had a term calledcoup doeil, a great commanders intuitive grasp of opportunity and danger on the battlefield, said Robert Work, the outgoing Deputy Secretary of Defense and father of the Third Offset, at a Johns Hopkins AI conference in May. Learning machines are going to give more and more commanderscoup doeil.

Conversely, AI can speak the ugly truths that human subordinates may not. There are not many captains that are going to tell a four-star COCOM (combatant commander) that idea sucks,' Work said, (but) the machine will say, you are an idiot, there is a 99 percent probability that you are going to get your ass handed to you.

Before commanders will take an AIs insights as useful, however, Work emphasized, they need to trust and understand how it works. That requires intensive operational test and evaluation, where you convince yourself that the machineswilldo exactly what you expect them to, reliably and repeatedly, he said. This goes back to trust.

Trust is so important, in fact, that two experts we heard from said they were willing to accept some tradeoffs in performance in order to get it: A less advanced and versatile AI, even a less capable one, is better than a brilliant machine you cant trust.

Army command post

The intelligence community, for instance, is keenly interested in AI that can help its analysts make sense of mind-numbing masses of data. But the AI has to help the analysts explain how it came to its conclusions, or they can never brief them to their bosses, explained Jason Matheny, director of the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Agency. IARPA is the intelligence equivalent of DARPA, which is running its own explainable AI project. So, when IARPA held one recent contest for analysis software, Matheny told the AI conference, it barred entry to programs whose reasoning could not be explained in plain English.

From the start of this program, (there) was a requirement that all the systems be explainable in natural language, Matheny said. That ended up consuming up about half the effort of the researchers, and they were really irritated.because it meant they couldnt in most cases use the best deep neural net approaches to solve this problem, they had to use kernel-based methods that were easier to explain.

Compared to cutting edge but harder-to-understand software, Matheny said, we got a 20-30 percent performance loss but these tools were actually adopted. They were used by analysts because they were explainable.

Transparent, predictable software isnt only importance for analysts: Its also vital for pilots, said Igor Cherepinsky, director ofautonomy programsat Sikorsky. Sikorskys goal for its MATRIX automated helicopter is that the AI prove itself as reliable as flight controls for manned aircraft, failing only once in a billion flight hours. Its the same probability as the wing falling off, Cherepinsky told me in an interview. By contrast, traditional autopilots are permitted much higher rates of failure, on the assumption a competent human pilot will take over if theres a problem.

Sikorskys experimental unmanned UH-60 Black Hawk

To reach that higher standard and just as important, to be able to prove theyd reached it the Sikorsky team ruled out the latest AI techniques, just as IARPA had done, in favor of more old-fashioned deterministic programming. While deep learning AI can surprise its human users with flashes of brilliance or stupidity deterministic software always produces the same output from a given input.

Machine learning cannot be verified and certified, Cherepinsky said. Some algorithms (in use elsewhere) we chose not to use even though they work on the surface, theyre not certifiable, verifiable, and testable.

Sikorsky has used some deep learning algorithms in its flying laboratory, Cherepinsky said, and hes far from giving up on the technology, but he doesnt think its ready for real world use: The current state of the art (is) theyre not explainable yet.

Robots With A Human Face

Explainable, tested, transparent algorithms are necessary but hardly sufficient to making an artificial intelligence that people will trust. They help address our rational concerns about AI, but if humans were purely rational, we might not need AI in the first place. Its one thing to build AI thats trustworthy in general and in the abstract, quite another to get actual individual humans to trust it. The AI needs to communicate effectively with humans, which means it needs to communicate the way humans do even think the way a human does.

You see in artificial intelligence an increasing trend towards lifelike agents and a demand for those agents, like Siri, Cortana, and Alexa, to be more emotionally responsive, to be more nuanced in ways that are human-like, David Hanson, CEO of Hong Kong-based Hanson Robotics, told the Johns Hopkins conference. When we deal with AI and robots, he said, intuitively, we think of them as life forms.

David Hanson with his Einstein robot.

Hanson makes AI toys like a talking Einstein doll and expressive talking heads like Han and Sophia, but hes looking far beyond such gadgets to the future of ever-more powerful AI. How can we, if we make them intelligent, make them caring and safe? he asked. We need a global initiative to create benevolent super intelligence.

Theres a danger here, however. Its called anthropomorphization, and we do it all the time. People chronically attribute human-like thoughts and emotions to our cats, dogs, and other animals, ignoring how they are really very different from us. But at least cats and dogs and birds, and fish, and scorpions, and worms are, like us, animals. They think with neurons and neurotransmitters, they breathe air and eat food and drink water, they mate and breed, are born and die. An artificial intelligence has none of these things in common with us, and programming it to imitate humanity doesnt make it human. The old phrase putting lipstick on a pig understates the problem, because a pig is biochemically pretty similar to us. Think instead of putting lipstick on a squid except a squid is a close cousin to humanity compared to an AI.

With these worries in mind, I sought out Hanson after his panel and asked him about humanizing AI. There are three reasons, he told me: Humanizing AI makes it more useful, because it can communicate better with its human users; it makes AI smarter, because the human mind is the only template of intelligence we have; and it makes AI safer, because we can teach our machines not only to act more human but to be more human. These three things combined give us better hope of developing truly intelligent adaptive machines sooner and making sure that theyre safe when they do happen, he said.

This squids thought process is less alien to you than an artificial intelligence would be.

Usefulness: On the most basic level, Hanson said, using robots and intelligent virtual agents with a human-like form makes them appealing. It creates a lot of uses for communicating and for providing value.

Intelligence: Consider convergent evolution in nature, Hanson told me. Bats, birds, and bugs all have wings, although they grow and work differently. Intelligence may evolve the same way, with AI starting in a very different place from humans but ending up awfully similar.

We may converge on human level intelligence in machines by modeling the human organism, Hanson said. AI originally was an effort to match the capacities of the human mind in the broadest sense, (with) creativity, consciousness, and self-determination and we found that that was really hard, (but still) theres no better example of mind that we know of than the human mind.

Safety: Beyond convergent evolution is co-evolution, where two species shape each other over time, as humans have bred wolves into dogs and irascible aurochs into placid cows. As people and AI interact, Hanson said, people will naturally select for features that desirable and can be understand by humans, which then puts a pressure on the machines to get smarter, more capable, more understanding, more trustworthy.

Sorry, real robots wont be this cute and friendly.

By contrast, Hanson warned, if we fear AI and keep it at arms length, it may develop unexpectedly deep in our networks, in some internet backbone or industrial control system where it has not co-evolved in constant contact with humanity. Putting them out of sight, out of mind, means were developing aliens, he said, and if they do become truly alive, and intelligent, creative, conscious, adaptive, but theyre alien, they dont care about us.

You may contain your machine so thats it safe, but what about your neighbors machine? What about the neighbor nations? What about some hackers who are off the grid? Hanson told me. I would say it will happen, we dont know when. My feeling is that if we can there first with a machine that we can understand, that proves itself trustworthy, that forms a positive relationship with us, that would be better.

Click to read the previous stories in the series:

Artificial Stupidity: When Artificial Intelligence + Human = Disaster

Artificial Stupidity: Fumbling The Handoff From AI To Human Control

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Artificial Stupidity: Learning To Trust Artificial Intelligence (Sometimes) - Breaking Defense

Baidu Is Partnering With Nvidia To ‘Accelerate’ Artificial Intelligence – Benzinga

NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA) and Baidu Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ: BIDU) announced a partnership Wednesday to unite their cloud computing services and artificial intelligence technology.

"We believe AI is the most powerful technology force of our time, with the potential to revolutionize every industry, Ian Buck, NVIDIA vice president and general manager of accelerated computing, said in a press release. Our collaboration aligns our exceptional technical resources to create AI computing platforms for all developers from academic research, startups creating breakthrough AI applications, and autonomous vehicles."

The companies will collaborate to infuse Baidu Cloud with NVIDIA Voltas deep learning capabilities, Baidus self-driving vehicle platform with NVIDIAs Drive PX 2 AI, and NVIDIAs Shield TV with Baidus DuerOS voice command program.

Additionally, Baidu will use NVIDIA HGX architecture and TensorRT software to support Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) accelerators in its data centers.

"Baidu and NVIDIA will work together on our Apollo self-driving car platform, using NVIDIA's automotive technology, Baidu President and Chief Operations Officer Qi Lu said at the companys recent AI developer conference. We'll also work closely to make PaddlePaddle the best deep learning framework; advance our conversational AI system, DuerOS; and accelerate research at the Institute of Deep Learning."

NVIDIA is already a significant player in the autonomous vehicle and home assistant spaces, but the latest deal will provide greater exposure to Chinese automakers such as Changan, Chery Automobile Co., FAW Car Co. and Greatwall Motor.

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2017 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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Baidu Is Partnering With Nvidia To 'Accelerate' Artificial Intelligence - Benzinga

Preparing MBA students for the artificial intelligence and machine age – Missouri S&T News and Research

Someday soon, you might be managing, working with or even working for a robot.

A core MBA class at Missouri University of Science and Technology prepares students for this distinct possibility, and teaches them how to coexist with their future artificial intelligence colleagues.

Dr. Keng Siau introduced artificial intelligence and machine learning into his business curriculum during the spring 2017 semester.

The Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and Information Systems Management course looks at the latest developments in artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotics, automation and advanced information technology, and their effect on our current ways of life and work as well as on economic/business models, says Siau, professor and chair of the business and information technology department. The course will be offered again in spring 2018.

Siau, who is a researcher on the economic/business and societal impact of artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotics, and automation, recently received a research grant from Missouri S&T to investigate these issues.

The advancement in artificial intelligence is going to create an economic tsunami, Siau says. Some reports are predicting that half of U.S. jobs are at risk of automation. Business managers and executives need to understand and comprehend the impending artificial intelligence, robotics, machine learning and automation revolution and its devastating impacts.

Siau wants his students to be prepared for such an uncertain future.

We are one of the pioneers in introducing artificial intelligence, machine learning, and robotics to our MBA students, Siau says.

As part of the class curriculum, Siau asks each student to present on a new artificial intelligence or machine learning technology. As a core MBA class, assignments mainly revolve around readings and classroom discussions. The class is offered both online and in a traditional classroom setting.

Initial student feedback for the course has been positive. Numerous students called the class eye-opening, and said it would help them prepare for a future in which they work hand in hand with artificial intelligence and machines.

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Preparing MBA students for the artificial intelligence and machine age - Missouri S&T News and Research

Navigating the AI ethical minefield without getting blown up – Diginomica

It is 60 years since Artificial Intelligence (AI) was first recognised as an academic discipline, but it is only in the 21st Century that AI has caught both businesses interest and the publics imagination.

Smartphones, smart hubs, and speech recognition have brought AI simulations to homes and pockets, autonomous vehicles are on our roads, and enterprise apps promise to reveal hidden truths about data of every size, and the people or behaviors it describes.

But AI doesnt just refer to a machine that is intelligent in terms of its operation, but also in terms of its social consequences. Thats the alarm bell sounding in the most thought-provoking report on AI to appear recently Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, a 56-page white paper published by UK-RAS, the umbrella body for British robotics research.

The upside of AI is easily expressed:

Current state-of-the-art AI allows for the automation of various processes, and new applications are emerging with the potential to change the entire workings of the business world. As a result, there is huge potential for economic growth.

One-third of the report explores the history of AIs development which is recommended reading but the authors get to the nitty gritty of its application right away:

A clear strategy is required to consider the associated ethical and legal challenges to ensure that society as a whole will benefit from AI, and its potential negative impact is mitigated from early on.

Neither the unrealistic enthusiasm, nor the unjustified fears of AI, should hinder its progress. [Instead] they should be used to motivate the development of a systemic framework on which the future of AI will flourish.

And AI is certainly flourishing, it adds:

The revenues of the AI market worldwide, were around $260 billion in 2016 and this is estimated to exceed $3,060 billion by 2024. This has had a direct effect on robotic applications, including exoskeletons, rehabilitation, surgical robots, and personal care-bots. [] The economic impact of the next 10 years is estimated to be between $1.49 and $2.95 trillion.

For vendors and their customers, AI is the new must-have differentiator. Yet in the context of what the report calls unrealistic enthusiasm about it, the need to understand AIs social impact is both urgent and overwhelming.

As AI, big data, and the related fields of machine learning, deep learning, and computer vision/object recognition rise, buyers and sellers are rushing to include AI in everything, from enterprise CRM to national surveillance programmes. An example of the latter is the FBIs scheme to record and analyse citizens tattoos in order to establish if people who have certain designs inked on their skin are likely to commit crimes*.

Such projects should come with the label Because we can.

In such a febrile environment, the risk is that the twin problems of confirmation bias in research and human prejudice in society become an automated pandemic: systems that are designed to tell people exactly what they want to hear; or software that perpetuates profound social problems.

This is neither alarmist, nor an overstatement. The white paper notes:

In an article published by Science magazine, researchers saw how machine learning technology reproduces human bias, for better or for worse. [AI systems] reflect the links that humans have made themselves.

These are real-world problems. Take the facial recognition system developed at MIT recently that was unable to identify an African American woman, because it was created within a closed group of white males male insularity is a big problem in IT. When Media Lab chief Joichi Ito shared this story at Davos earlier this year, he described his own students as oddballs.*

The white paper adds its own example of human/societal bias entering AI systems:

When an AI program became a juror in a beauty contest in September 2016, it eliminated most black candidates as the data on which it had been trained to identify beauty did not contain enough black skinned people.

Now apply this model in, say, automated law enforcement

The point is that human bias infects AI systems at both linguistic and cultural levels. Code replicates belief systems including their flaws, prejudices, and oversights while coders themselves often prefer the binary world of computing to the messy world of humans. Again, MITs Ito made this observation, while Microsofts Tay chatbot disaster proved the point: a nave robot, programmed by binary thinkers in a closed community.

The report acknowledges the industrys problem and recognises that it strongly applies to AI today:

One limitation of AI is the lack of common sense; the ability to judge information beyond its acquired knowledge [] AI is also limited in terms of emotional intelligence.

Then the report makes a simple observation that businesses must take on board: true and complete AI does not exist, it says, adding that there is no evidence yet that it will exist before 2050.

So its a sobering thought that AI software with no common sense and probable bias, and which cant understand human emotions, behaviour, or social contexts, is being tasked with trawling context-free communications data (and even body art) pulled from human society in order to expose criminals, as they are defined by career politicians.

And yet thats precisely whats happening in the US, in the UK, and elsewhere.

The white paper takes pains to set out both the opportunities and limitations of this transformative, trillion-dollar technology, the future of which extends into augmented intelligence and quantum computing. On the one hand, the authors note:

[AI] applications can replace costly human labour and create new potential applications and work along with/for humans to achieve better service standards.

It is certain that AI will play a major role in our future life. As the availability of information around us grows, humans will rely more and more on AI systems to live, to work, and to entertain.

[AI] can achieve impressive results in recognising images or translating speech.

Buton the other hand, they add:

When the system has to deal with new situations when limited training data is available, the model often fails. [] Current AI systems are still missing [the human] level of abstraction and generalisability.

Most current AI systems can be easily fooled, which is a problem that affects almost all machine learning techniques.

Deep neural networks have millions of parameters and to understand why the network provides good or bad results becomes impossible. [] Trained models are often not interpretable. Consequently, most researchers use current AI approaches as a black box.

So organisations should be wary of the black boxs potential to mislead, and to be misled.

The paper has been authored by four leading academics in the field: Dr Guang-Zhong Yang (chair of UK-RAS and a great advocate for the robotics industry), and three of his colleagues at Imperial College, London: Doctors Fani Deligianni, Daniele Ravi, and Javier Andreu Perez. These are clear-sighted idealists as well as world authorities on the subject. As a result, they perhaps under-estimate businesses zeal to slash costs and seek out new, tactical solutions.

The digital business world is faddy and, as anyone who uses LinkedIn knows just as full of surface noise as its consumer counterpart: claims that fail the Snopes test attract thousands of Likes, while rigorous analysis goes unread. As a result, businesses risk seeing the attractions of AI through the pinhole of short-term financial advantage, rather than locating it in a landscape of real social renewal, as academics and researchers do.

As our recent report on UK Robotics Week showed, productivity rather than what this paper calls the amplification of human potential is the main driver of tech policy in government today. Meanwhile, think tanks such as Reform are falling over themselves to praise robotics and AIs shared potential to slash costs and cut humans out of the workforce.

But thats not what AIs designers intend for it at all.

So the problem for the many socially and ethically conscious academics working in the field is that business often leaps before it looks, or thinks. A recent global study by consultancy Avanade found that 70%of the C-level executives it questioned admitted to having given little thought to the ethical dimensions of smart technologies.

But what are the most pressing questions to answer? First, theres the one about human dignity:

Data is the fuel of AI and special attention needs to be paid to the information source and if privacy is breached. Protective and preventive technologies need to be developed against such threats.

It is the responsibility of AI operators to make sure that data privacy is protected. [] Additionally, applications of AI, which may compromise the rights to privacy, should be treated with special legislation that protects the individual.

Then there is the one about human employment. Currently, eight percent of jobs are occupied by robots, claims the report, but in 2020 this percentage will rise to 26.

The authors add:

The accelerated process of technological development now allows labour to be replaced by capital (machinery). However, there is a negative correlation between the probability of automation of a profession and its average annual salary, suggesting a possible increase in short-term inequality.

Id argue that the middle class will be seriously hit by AI and automation. Once-secure, professional careers in banking, finance, law, journalism, medicine, and other fields, are being automated far more quickly than, say, skilled manual trades, many of which will never fall to the machines. (If you want a long-term career, become a plumber.)

But the report continues:

To reduce the social impact of unemployment caused by robots and autonomous systems, the EU parliament proposed that they should pay social security contributions and taxes as if they were human.

(As did Bill Gates.)

Words to make Treasury officials worldwidejump for joy. But whatever the likelihood of such ideas ever being accepted by cost-focused businesses, its clear that strong, national-level engagement is essential to ensure that everyone in society has a clear, factual view of both current and future developments in robotics and AI, says the report not just enterprises and governments.

The reports authors have tried to do just that, and for that we should thank them.

*The two case studies referenced have also been quoted by Prof. Simon Rogerson in a July 2017 article on computer ethics, which Chris Middleton edited and to which he contributed these examples, with Simons permission.

Image credit - Free for use

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Navigating the AI ethical minefield without getting blown up - Diginomica

Artificial Intelligence Better Than Medical Experts At Choosing … – IFLScience

The future of baby-making is set to be very different from the one we have now. Just last week, a researcher boldly claimed that growing embryos in a laboratory setting will become far more commonplace, and will allow us to remove genetic diseases from the equation before the baby is born.

Now, during the annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Geneva, scientists have given us yet another peek into the future of conception. In a groundbreaking new study, a team of embryologists was pitted against an artificial intelligence (AI) during simulated in vitro fertilization (IVF) selection process and the AI appeared to be better at selecting viable embryos.

During IVF, an egg is removed from the hopeful mothers ovaries and fertilized with the potential fathers sperm in a laboratory setting. This fertilized egg is then implanted in the womans womb and allowed to develop normally.

Its used for those with fertility problems, and currently has variable rates of success. Sometimes, the embryos fail for a variety of reasons, and experts are trained to look out for defects that may trigger a failed pregnancy. Between 30 to 60 percent of seemingly viable embryos fail to implant in the uterus.

This new study a collaborative effort between So Paulo State University and Londons Boston Place Clinic decided to pit experts against an AI designed to do their jobs for them. Using bovine embryos, the AI was given a chance to train itself to look for viable embryos and highlight defective ones.

Both the AI and a team of embryologists were then given 48 examples of bovine embryos to look at, and had a chance to observe them three times over.

Using just 24 key characteristics, such as morphology, texture, and the quantity and quality of the cells present, the AI was able to pick viable embryos 76 percent of the time. Although the accuracy value for the embryologists was not given, it was said to be lower; importantly, unlike the AI, the embryologists found it difficult getting a consensus on the quality of the embryos.

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Artificial Intelligence Better Than Medical Experts At Choosing ... - IFLScience

Wipro to make aerostructures with Israel Aerospace Industries – The Hindu


The Hindu
Wipro to make aerostructures with Israel Aerospace Industries
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Wipro to make aerostructures with Israel Aerospace Industries - The Hindu

UTC Aerospace Systems And Ophir Corporation To Collaborate On The Next Generation Of Laser Air Data Systems – PR Newswire (press release)

Unlike current pitot probe air data sensors, which monitor air pneumatically using pressurized air or gas, this new system will use Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) sensing techniques to measure various air data parameters. Laser air data systems are not susceptible to icing and aerodynamic drag, and as a result they free up power to be used elsewhere on the aircraft. Laser air data systems will operate reliably in virtually all environments and operate down to zero velocity and at all angles of attack and sideslip, thus expanding information available to the flight control system. One day, experts anticipate laser air data systems may even be able to look ahead of the aircraft to better navigate turbulence, thereby enhancing passenger safety and comfort.

The laser air data system technology developed by Ophir is unique in that it is capable of measuring the full range of air data parameters (temperature, velocity, angle of attack, angle of side slip and altitude) in a manner that is fully dissimilar to traditional air data systems. The companies anticipate that laser air data systems will be used in concert with UTC Aerospace Systems' field-proven air data sensors as part of a more intelligent air data architecture, complementing and strengthening an aircraft's overall air data collection ability and thus improving flight safety, aircraft efficiency and autonomous control.

Ophir has flight-tested prototypes and has demonstrated the performance potential of the technology. UTC Aerospace Systems and Ophir are collaborating in the design of a new prototype to improve performance, robustness and packaging for future flight-testing with customers.

"Ophir Corporation has been developing, manufacturing and servicing laser radar avionics systems for over thirty years. We are excited to use this heritage experience to collaborate with UTC Aerospace Systems for the commercialization of our laser air data sensor. We believe that this sensor potentially increases aviation flight safety, measurement availability and reliability by providing a redundant air data measurement in all weather conditions," said Ophir President Martin O'Brien.

"UTC Aerospace Systems has been at the forefront of air data technology since it was first introduced at the outset of the Jet Age, and we're proud to continue that tradition by collaborating with Ophir on laser air data sensors, which we believe represent the next frontier in air data collection," said Sensors & Integrated Systems President Justin Keppy. "By helping aircraft measure data more effectively under more conditions, laser air data sensors will allow pilots to make more informed in-flight decisions, thus enhancing flight safety and efficiency."

About Ophir CorporationOphir Corporation develops, manufactures and services laser radar avionics for military and commercial customers. Ophir provides innovative, laser radar solutions aimed to increase aircraft flight safety, optimize wind turbine energy production and meet the needs of our Nation. Ophir is a small business and is an AS9100C and ISO 9001:2008 certified aerospace contractor. For more information about the company, visit our website at http://www.ophir.com.

About UTC Aerospace SystemsUTC Aerospace Systems is one of the world's largest suppliers of technologically advanced aerospace and defense products. UTC Aerospace Systems designs, manufactures and services integrated systems and components for the aerospace and defense industries, supporting a global customer base with significant worldwide manufacturing and customer service facilities. For more information about the company, visit our website at http://www.utcaerospacesystems.com or follow us on Twitter: @utcaerosystems

About United Technologies CorporationUnited Technologies Corp., based in Farmington, Connecticut, provides high-technology systems and services to the building and aerospace industries. By combining a passion for science with precision engineering, the company is creating smart, sustainable solutions the world needs. For more information about the company, visit our website at http://www.utc.com or follow us on Twitter: @UTC

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/utc-aerospace-systems-and-ophir-corporation-to-collaborate-on-the-next-generation-of-laser-air-data-systems-300483168.html

SOURCE UTC Aerospace Systems

http://www.utcaerospacesystems.com

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UTC Aerospace Systems And Ophir Corporation To Collaborate On The Next Generation Of Laser Air Data Systems - PR Newswire (press release)

Manufacturing Software Helps Aerospace Assembler Track Production – Assembly Magazine

Airline passengers may not be familiar with the manufacturer SAFRAN Landing Systems (SLS). But, for the past decade, the companys braking, landing and monitoring systems have enabled millions of passengers to arrive safely at their destinations.

SLS is a large company (more than 7,000 employees), with design and manufacturing facilities across the globe. Assembly is performed in Asia (Seremban, Malaysia; Suzhou, China), Europe (Molsheim, Bidos, and Villeurbanne, France; Gloucester, England), Canada (Montreal), Mexico (Quertaro) and the United States (Walton, KY; Seattle).

Not surprisingly, the company faces production planning and scheduling problems at one or more of these facilities at different times. In fact, the biggest problem SLS has faced in recent years is knowing, at any moment, the true production capacity of each plant.

To meet this challenge, company management considered various types of management software. Ultimately, SLS settled on TrakSYS from Parsec Automation Corp. because it is configurable and scalable, provides Web-based reporting, and can be modified and expanded using internal resources.

In late 2015, SLS used the software at one plant as a test case. TrakSYS was installed on one server and connected to 12 CNC machines (on two assembly lines) and their control systems via an Ethernet LAN. Machine operators were able to interact with the systems at all times and view production and performance information, reports, enter observations and categorize events.

As for plant managers, they focused on how the software benefitted the plant in four areas related to production. First and foremost, managers used the software to analyze production and equipment data to determine true asset utilization. Also closely analyzed were production planning and scheduling accuracy, the production stream of the facilitys lean manufacturing program, and the impact of continuous-improvement initiatives like 5S,single-minute exchange of dies (SMED) to reduce equipment changeover time, and lean money indexing (LMI), which combines lean manufacturing with activity-based costing.

Within three months of deploying it [software], we were able to identify the root causes of production problems, prioritize them by their impact, and focus on measurably improving production capacity, explains Christophe Joubert, industrial vice president of the wheels and brakes division at SLS.

The software provided managers with correct and detailed production information in real time, including reports about major and minor bottlenecks. This enabled them to accurately determine process times and labor hours, correct resource allocations and utilizations, and, ultimately, increase the daily production of each CNC machine by an average of one hour.

Increasing production by this amount made it possible for SLS to achieve an ROI on the software in just three months, rather than 1 year as initially expected. TrakSYSs cost-effectiveness, combined with its production benefits, convinced SLS managers to implement the software on another 10 production lines at the plant.

For more information on manufacturing management software, call 714-996-5302 or visit http://www.parsec-corp.com.

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Manufacturing Software Helps Aerospace Assembler Track Production - Assembly Magazine

Global Aerospace Interior Sandwich Panel Market Likely to Grow at … – PR Newswire (press release)

Stratview Researchannounces the launch of a new research report onGlobal Aerospace Interior Sandwich Panel Market by Aircraft Type (Narrow-Body Aircraft, Wide-Body Aircraft, Very Large Aircraft, Regional Aircraft, and General Aviation), by Application Type (Floor Panel, Side Wall Panel, Ceiling Panel, Stowage Bin, Galley, Lavatory, and Others), by Core Material Type (Nomex Honeycomb, Aluminum Honeycomb, and Others), by End-User Type (OE and Aftermarket), and by Region (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Rest of the World), Trend, Forecast, Competitive Analysis, and Growth Opportunity: 2017-2022.

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This strategic report, from Stratview Research, studies the interior sandwich panel market in the global aerospace industry over the period 2011 to 2022. The report provides detailed insights on the market dynamics to enable informed business decision making and growth strategy formulation based on the opportunities present in the market.

Interior Sandwich Panel Market in the Global AerospaceIndustry: Highlights

As per Stratview Research, the global aerospace interior sandwich panel market offers a healthy growth opportunity of 5.5% CAGR during the forecast period of 2017 to 2022 and reach an estimated $1.6 billion in 2022. The author of the report stated thatIncreasing production rates of the key commercial and regional aircraft, such as B737, B787, A320, A350XWB, and C Series; upcoming commercial and regional aircraft, such as Comac C919 and Mitsubishi MRJ; rising requirement of lightweight and durable products in interior applications fueled by the introduction of stringent government regulations related to fuel consumption and emission reduction; advancement in the technology; increasing global aircraft fleet size; and growing awareness to improve passenger experience are the major growth drivers of the market.

The research's findings suggest that narrow-body aircraft is expected to remain the largest segment of sandwich panel market in the aerospace interior applications during the forecast period of 2017 to 2022, whereas, wide-body aircraft is likely to witness the highest growth during the same period, driven by an increasing demand for wide-body aircraft, such as B787 and A350XWB, in the developing economies, such as China and India. There is also a healthy demand for wide-body aircraft in the Middle-East region.

In terms of core material type, nomex honeycomb has been the perennial choice for a wide array of interior applications in the aerospace industry. All the major aircraft types including narrow-body and wide-body aircraft are heavily relying on this unique material. Nomex honeycomb offers large number of advantages over competing materials, such as lightweight, exceptional stiffness and strength, good corrosion resistance, good fire resistance, good thermal stability, and excellent dielectric properties.

As per the study, North America is projected to remain the largest aerospace interior sandwich panel market during the forecast period. Most of the aircraft manufacturers have manufacturing and assembly plants located in North America. Additionally, all the major sandwich panel manufacturers have presence in the region to support OEMs for the development of advanced products meeting emerging requirements of airlines. However, Asia-Pacific is expected to witness the highest growth during the forecast period. The largest commercial aircraft fleet size; the gradual shift of manufacturing/assembly plants of OEMs; and upcoming indigenous commercial and regional aircraft, such as Comac C919, ARJ21, and MRJ, fueled by increasing passenger traffic will continue to drive the Asia-Pacific market in the coming years.

Zodiac Aerospace, The Gill Corporation, B/E Aerospace (now Rockwell Collins), Euro-Composites Corp., FACC AG, Jamco Corporation, and Triumph Composite Systems are some of the major players in the aerospace interior sandwich panel market. New product development, adoption of advanced lightweight materials, and collaboration with OEMs are some of the key strategies adopted by companies to gain a competitive edge over others.

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Report Features

This report provides market intelligence in the most comprehensive way. The report structure has been kept such that it offers maximum business value. It provides critical insights on the market dynamics and will enable strategic decision making for the existing market players as well as those willing to enter the market. The following are the key features of the report:

This report studies the interior sandwich panel market in the global aerospace industry and has segmented the market in five ways, keeping in mind the interest of all the stakeholders across the value chain. Following are the five ways in which the market is segmented:

GlobalAerospace Interior Sandwich PanelMarket by Aircraft Type

GlobalAerospace Interior Sandwich PanelMarket by Application Type:

GlobalAerospace Interior Sandwich PanelMarket by Core Material Type:

GlobalAerospace Interior Sandwich PanelMarket by End-User Type:

Global Aerospace Interior Sandwich Panel Marketby Region:

Stratview Research has number of high value market reports in the global aerospace & defense industry. Please refer to the following link to browse through our reports:

Click Here for Other Reports from Stratview Research in the Aerospace & Defense Industry

Some of our other premium market reports in the aerospace & defense industry:

Global Aerospace Floor Panel Market by Aircraft Type (Narrow-Body Aircraft, Wide-Body Aircraft, Very Large Aircraft, Regional Aircraft, and General Aviation), by Core Material Type (Nomex Honeycomb, Aluminum Honeycomb, and Others), by End-User Type (OEM and Aftermarket), and by Region (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Rest of the World), Trend, Forecast, Competitive Analysis, and Growth Opportunity: 2017 - 2022

Global Aerospace & Defense Composite Ducting Market by Aircraft Type (Commercial Aircraft, Regional Aircraft, General Aviation, Helicopter, Military Aircraft, and Others), by Pressure Type (Low Pressure and High Pressure), By Reinforcement Type (Glass Composites, Carbon Composites, and Other Composites), by Matrix Type (Epoxy Composites, Phenolic Composites, Thermoplastic Composites, and Other Composites), by Application Type (ECS, APU, Avionics Ventilation, and Others), by Manufacturing Process (Mandrel Layup, Rotation Molding, and Others), and by Region (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Rest of the World), Trend, Forecast, Competitive Analysis, and Growth Opportunity: 2017-2022

About Stratview Research

Stratview Research is a global market intelligence firm providing wide range of services including syndicated market reports, custom research and sourcing intelligence across industries, such as Advanced Materials, Aerospace & Defense, Automotive & Mass Transportation, Consumer Goods, Construction & Equipment, Electronics and Semiconductors, Energy & Utility, Healthcare & Life Sciences, and Oil & Gas.

We have a strong team of industry veterans and analysts with an extensive experience in executing custom research projects for mid-sized to Fortune 500 companies, in the areas of Market Assessment, Opportunity Screening, Competitive Intelligence, Due Diligence, Target Screening, Market Entry Strategy, Go to Market Strategy, and Voice of Customer studies.

Stratview Research is a trusted brand globally, providing high quality research and strategic insights that help companies worldwide in effective decision making.

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Global Aerospace Interior Sandwich Panel Market Likely to Grow at ... - PR Newswire (press release)

Airlines, airports may struggle with US security deadlines – Tulsa World

Airlines and overseas airports will struggle to meet deadlines for implementing broad new security requirements on flights to the U.S., airline industry groups and consultants say.

Airports have a short timeline to comply with a few of the directives the Department of Homeland Security issued this week, according to a memo from the International Air Transport Association to its members. Some technology and even bomb-sniffing dogs required under the measures aren't readily available in each of the 280 airports affected.

"Getting the right equipment is one thing whether it's canines or X-ray machines. Training people to support those is another," said Michael O'Neil, chief executive officer of MSA Security, which provides security, training and other services. "Then it's going to come down to costs. None of this stuff is cheap. And who is going to be responsible for that?"

DHS didn't detail whether airlines, airports or governments must pay for the upgrades, he said.

The stepped-up standards are in response to intelligence showing terrorist groups have become more sophisticated in their bomb-making efforts and could hide explosives in laptops or other electronic devices. The measures include enhanced screening of electronic devices, more thorough vetting of passengers, increased use of bomb-sniffing dogs and measures to mitigate the potential threat posed by insider attacks, DHS Secretary John Kelly said Wednesday.

The new procedures, being put in place to avoid an outright ban of large personal electronic devices in airline passenger cabins, cover an average 2,100 flights a day coming into the U.S. and 325,000 passengers, DHS said. Airports that can't fulfill the new requirements by the deadlines might have to force fliers to give up their electronics, or flights to the U.S. may be banned altogether, Kelly said.

Explosive trace detection equipment required under the new measures isn't readily available on a wide scale, consultants said. Neither are bomb-detecting dogs, said O'Neil, who runs the largest bomb-dog program in North America.

"We believe that the development of the security directive should have been subject to a greater degree of collaboration and coordination to avoid the significant operational disruptions and unnecessarily frustrating consequences for the traveling public that appear likely to happen," Nicolas Calio, president of Airlines for America, said in a statement.

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Airlines have had ample opportunity to discuss the measures in multiple meetings with U.S. officials and the vast majority of airports should have no trouble meeting the new requirements, according to Homeland Security.

"This is a response to the risk posed to commercial aviation by terrorists," said David Lapan, a department spokesman. "We are addressing an evolving threat and the measures are not 'one size fits all' but intended to raise the baseline on aviation security worldwide."

The department is open to discussions with carriers that can't meet the deadlines, a senior Homeland Security official said in a briefing with reporters on Wednesday. The official requested anonymity to discuss details of the security measures.

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Airlines, airports may struggle with US security deadlines - Tulsa World